Just say no to Gitmo?

The Supreme Court smacked the White House around today on using military tribunals to try prisoners at Guantanamo. The 5-3 decision, in a case brought by Osama bin Laden’s former driver, declared the tribunals violate the Geneva Conventions and U.S. military rules.

Bush, who established the tribunals after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, didn’t have much to say about the ruling earlier today at a joint press avail with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The president said he’d only had time for a “drive-by briefing” on the ruling before the press conference.

In other words, I have told the people that I would like for there to be a way to return people from Guantanamo to their home countries, but some of them — people need to be tried in our courts. And that’s — the Hamdan decision was the way forward for that part of my statement, and, again, I would like to review the case. And we are, we’ve got people looking at it right now to determine how we can work with Congress if that’s available to solve the problem.

It was early, and the blog felt certain that by briefing time, the White House would have formulated a cogent response. Not so much, though. Spokesman Tony Snow took a sort of bemused tone on the whole issue, saying lawyers were on the case but the White House didn’t know quite what to make of it yet.

He did repeatedly deny that the tribunals were ever part of a larger expansion of executive powers by the president, saying that “in time of war,” Bush was just doing what was necessary to protect the American people. He also took issue with language describing the ruling as a rebuke or a blow to the administration.

You’re trying to frame this as a political fight, and it’s not. The Supreme Court has now rendered its judgment in the Hamdan case, and it is now the obligation of the administration, which — the president, who controls the executive branch, to figure out how to proceed to create laws — to execute laws that are consistent with the Supreme Court’s holding.

So basically, back to the drawing board to come up with a new way to try the prisoners at Guantanamo. Bush said earlier this month that he wants to close Guantanamo. Snow said that, well, Bush wants to close it — just not right now.

And the ruling — the president never said he wanted to — he said he wants to close Guantanamo. He didn’t say he wanted to close it quickly because there are some practical considerations. There are —